Locomotive driving box



Apr. 24, 1923.

v f 1,452,895 E. W. RAWDON" LocomorIvE DRIVING BOX Filed July 20, 1922" 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 I I M l W gwuemtoc Apr.'2(1, 1923.

E.-W. RAWDON LOCOMOTIVE DRIVING Box Fil d July 20. 1922 2 Shets-Sheet 2 [dward Wfdwdow.

Patented Apr. 24, 1923.

"'i IUNIT'ED STATES,

EDWARD ,w'. aawnonor AKRON, oHIo.

LO C OMOTIVE DRIVING BOX.

Application filed July 20, 1922. Serial No. 576,358.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD W. RAWDON, citizen of the United States, residing, at Akron, in the county of Summit and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Locomotive Driving Boxes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improved driving box for locomotives and seeks, as

one of its principal objects, to provide a box wherein looseness of the box will be auto ness develops but wherein the box will, at all times, have proper play upon its supporting pedestal.

; Another object of the invention is to provide a box wherein the movement of the box, permitted by undue looseness of the box,

will be utilized for adjusting the box wedge to take up such looseness.

And'the invention hasas a still further obj ect'to provide a box wherein as the wedge is adjusted, said wedge will be locked in adjusted position so that accidental retrograde move'mentof the wedge will be prevented.

Other and incidental objects will appear hereinafter.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary side elevation showing ,my improved driving box in connection with a conventional pedestal, Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view particularly showing the adjusting mechanism for the box wedge,

. Figure 3 is an enlarged fragmentary horizontal sectional view on the line 33 of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows,

Figure l'is a fragmentary elevation of the lower end of the wedge,

Figure 5 is a fragmentary vertical section illustrating a slight modification of the invention, a A

Figure 6 is a horizontal section of the modified structure, and

Figures 7, 8 and 9 are diagrammatic views illustrating the operation of the pawls of the modified structure.

In carrying the invention intoefi'ect, I an ploy a box body 10 which is formed to journal a drive axle, as conventionally illustrated at 11. The box body may be of any approved construction andis provided at its sides" with the usual flanges to cooperate with a shoe 12 and a wedge 13 supporting the box body upon a pedestal, as conventionally illustrated at 14:, the pedestal being provided with the usual brace 15. Formed in the lower edge of the wedge at its inner side is a vertical recess 16 at the upper end of which are slots 17 and extending into said recess is a wedge bolt 18 provided at its upper end with a circular head 19 removably engaging in said slots and rotatab-ly connecting the bolt with the wedge, the bolt being free to turn within said recess. As best shown in Figure 2, the bolt' is threaded through the pedestal brace 15 and is provided with oppositely disposed fiat sides 20. Fitting the bolt is a ratchet disc 21 resting upon the upper edge of the pedestal brace and provided with a smooth lower face to coact therewith while at its upper side the disc is formed with a series of radial ratchet teeth 22. As brought out in Figure 3, the disc is provided with a central opening having spaced parallel walls to' coact with the fiat faces 20 of the bolt so that while the bolt may freely shift longitudinally through the disc still, rotation of the disc will serve to turn the bolt. Depending from the rear leg of the'box body are'spaced ears 23' and pivotally mounted atone end between said ears is a pawl 24 resting at its oppositejendupon the disc to coact with the teeth thereon. Formed in the rear leg of the pedestal 141 is a recess 25 and freely received at one endin saidre'cess is a locking dog 26 pivotally supported by a .pin 27 vdriven into the pedestal leg from the outer side thereof to intersect the recess. At its free end, this dog rests upon the ratchet disc to coact with the teeth of said disc behind the free end of the pawl, the dogengaging tooth of the disc immediately behind the tooth engaged by the pawl.

As will be well understood, continued service causes the" box body, shoe and wedge to become worn so that when the locomotive is in motion the horizontal thrust of the drive axle causes thebo'x body to shift forwardly and rearwardly between the legs of the pedestal each time the drive wheels revolve. A terrific pounding is thus set up and unless corrected promptly, will result in serious inrotating the wedge bolt to adjust said bolt upwardly upon thepedestal brace 15 and as a result advance the wedge 13 upwardly for taking up looseness of the box body. Accordingly, looseness of the box body will be automatically eliminated as such looseness develops and since upward adjustment of the wedge will progressively diminish the horizontal play of the box body to, in turn, di-- ininish the throw of the pawl 24, the travel of the pawl will be gradually reduced to less than the width of any one of the teeth of the ratchet disc so that after the wedge hasbeen adjusted upwardly the required distance to properly take up the looseness of the box body, the pawl will be rendered inactive. Therefore, the wedge cannot be adjusted up wardly in such degree as to bind the box body between the wedge and shoe, it be ing well understood that the box body must have suflicient play to freely travel. vertically within the pedestal. Downward movement of the box body will, of course, tend to drive the pawl rearwardly. However, since, as previously noted, the free end of the dog 26 is disposed immediately behind the free end of the, pawl, the free end of the pawl will, when the box body thus moves downwardly, travel out of engagement with the ratchet disc upwardly upon the free end portion of the dog so that the dog will thus prevent the pawl from engaging a fresh tooth of the ratchet disc incident to vertical movement of the box body. Further, it is to be noted that the pawl is loosely mounted between the legs 23 of the box body so that when the box body shifts vertically,the free end of the pawl will tend to ride along the tooth with which itis engaged. Under normal circumstances, the pawl will, of course, serve to hold the ratchet disc against retrograde move ment. However, the dog 26 is providedfor positively locking the ratchet disc against such movement so that the wedge bolt cannot become accidentally released to permit retrograde movement of the wedge.

In Figures 5 to 9 inclusive of the drawings, I have illustrated a slight modification of the invention wherein the rear leg of the pedestal is indicated at 28, the pedestal. brace at 29, the rear leg of the box at 30, and the wedge at 31. 'Ihrcaded through the pedestal brace is a wedge bolt 32 corresponding to the wedge bolt 20 and rotatably con nected at its upper end to the wedge, as in the preferred construction. Resting upon the. pedestal brace is a ratchet disc 33 surrounding the wedge bolt to coact therewith so that said disc may be turned for rotating the bolt while, at the same time, the bolt will be permitted to move endwise through the disc, this disc being similar to the ratchet disc 21 of the preferred construction and being provided with radial ratchet teeth 34-. Depending from the rear leg of the box body are spaced ears and pivotally mounted between said ears are companion pawls which for convenience, have been indicated at 36, 37 and 38 respectively, the pawls being all held by a bolt passing through the ears and resting at their free ends upon the ratchet disc. leg 28 of the pedestal, as in the preferred Mounted at one end upon the rear construction, is a locking dog 39, the for ward end of which is. as shown in Figure 5, provided with teeth 40 to coact with the teeth of the ratchet disc.

As will now be observed, the pawls 36, 37 and 38 are of graduated length so that the working ends of the pawls are stepped with respect to each other. Consequently, when the driving box is shifted by the horizontal thrust of the drive axle, said pawls will, as shown inv Figures 7, S and 9, successively engage with each of the teeth of the ratchet disc for rotating said disc to adjust the wedge bolt and advance the wedge for taking up the looseness in the driving box. The spacing between the freeends of the pawls is relatively close so that as soon as the driving box develops anyappreciable looseness, some one of the pawls will be actuated for advancing the wedge-to take up such looseness, the close spacing of the pawls, as will be seen, serving to proportionately limit the looseness which must develop in the driving box before the ratchet disc will be operated to overcome suchlooseness. Accordingly, at no time will the driving box be permitted undue forward and rear play and as the ratchet disc is turned by the pawls successively, the teeth 40 of the dog 39 will successively engage each of the teeth of the disc for. locking the disc again t retrograde movement. v 1

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

1. The combination with a journal box, a pedestal operatively supporting the box, and means interposed between the box and pedestal and adjustable for taking up forward and rear play of the box, of means operable by the box for adjusting the first means.

2. The combination with a journal box, a pedestal operatively supporting the box, and a wedge interposed between the boxand pedestal, of means operable by the box for adjusting the wedge,

3. The combination with a journal box, a pedestal operatively supporting the box, and means interposed between the box and pedestal adjustable for taking up forward and rear play of the box, of adjusting means for the first means, and means carried by the box for automatically actuating the adjusting means.

4:. The combination with a journal box, a pedestal operatively supporting the box, and a wedge interposed between the box and pedestal, of adjusting means for the wedge, and means carried by the box for automatically actuating the adjusting means.

5. The combination with a journal box, a pedestal operatively supporting the box and including a pedestal brace, and a wedge interposed between the box and pedestal, of a bolt threaded through the pedestal brace and rotatable for adjusting the Wedge, and coacting means carried by the bolt and box for adjusting the bolt inoident to forward and rear movement of the box.

6. The combination with a journal box, a

pedestal. operatively supporting the box and including apedestal brace, and a wedge interposed between the box and pedestal, of .a bolt threaded through the pedestal brace and rotatable for adjusting the wedge, means slidable along. the bolt but rotatable for turning the b0lt, .and means carried by the box body to. coact with the first means for rotating the first means incident to forward and rear movement of the box.

7. The combination with a journal box, a pedestal operatively supporting the box and including a pedestal brace, and a wedge interposed betweenthe box and pedestal, of a bolt threaded through the pedestal brace and rotatable for adjusting the; wedge, thebolt being provided with a flat face, a ratchet disc surrounding the bolt to rest upon the pedestal brace slidably receiving,

the bolt therethrough but provided with a flat face to coact with the fiat face of the bolt whereby the disc may be rotated for turning the bolt, a pawl carried by the box body to coact with the ratchet disc for turning said disc incident to forward and rear movement of the box, and a dog mounted upon the pedestal to coact with the disc looking the disc against retrograde movement.

8. The combination with a journal box, a

pedestal operatively supporting the box, and

able ratchet disc, and a plurality of pawls carried by the box and graduated in length to coact with said disc in stepped relation for rotating the disc incident to forward and rear play of the box.

10. In a journal box, the combination of a pedestal, a box body, means adjustable for taking up forward and rear play of the box body, and means automatically operable by the box body for adjusting said first mentioned means.

11. In a journal box, the combination of a pedestal, a box body, means adjustable for taking up forward and rear play of the box body, and means carried by the box body to coact with said first mentioned means and set into operation by such play for automatically adjusting said first mentioned means.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

EDWARD w. RAWDON. a 8.] 

